Between
by Lennelle
Summary: There's a guy sitting at the back of the class who Jess has never spoken to before. Part of the 'Below' verse.


This is based on an ohsam prompt from way back in November, but I only managed to finish it now: _Stanford era, Sam/Jess. The tall guy in her history class never talks. Jess knows he's smart, and he always pays attention to the professor, but she's pretty sure she's never heard him say a word. Sam with a bad stutter, or selective mutism, or a speech disorder or some kind._

Halfway through writing I thought this fit well with my story 'Below'. So, this is Sam from that story, but a few years later. Not edited, so there's probably a mountain of errors, but it's a just a sweet and short one. Enjoy!

* * *

There's a guy sitting at the back of the class who Jess has never spoken to before. He's tall, enough so that he makes even Jess feel short, and she's been nose-to-nose with most of her past boyfriends. She inherited her dad's insanely long legs and it's always been something she hated. Being a head above everyone else makes you stand out from the crowd, but somehow this guy manages to blend into the room better than the wallpaper. Jess realises she doesn't even know his name.

She's jolted out of her thoughts as the professor enters the hall and tells her to take a seat. Becky waves to her from the front, the vacant seat beside her is claimed by her denim jacket, but Jess' eyes wander to the back of the room where the giant of a boy has his head bowed low over his book. Unlike everyone else in the lecture hall, he doesn't have a laptop.

She doesn't think as she walks past Becky in the front row and climbs the steps all the way to the back, taking one of the seats next to the nameless boy. He lifts his head then, eyes wide as he stares at her like she's an alien, then he glances around like he doesn't know where to look.

"I'm Jess," Jess whispers softly, trying to break the ice between them.

His mouth opens and closes like a goldfish's, then he goes rigid, averting his gaze towards the front of the room. The entire hour in the lecture hall is like that; awkward as hell. The guy is pressed into the side of his seat like Jess has the plague, focusing on the professor intensely.

At the end of the lecture, the guy stands up - and he really is _tall_ \- then he's out the door before anyone else even has a chance to collect their things.

* * *

Jess figures it's best to avoid sitting beside the tall, tall boy at the back of the classroom from then on, but it doesn't keep her from investigating.

"You know who he is?" she asks Becky a couple of days later during lunch.

"Who?" Becky says distractedly, discarding the pickles from her sandwich with a sour expression.

"Tall guy in Art History," says Jess. "He sits at the back, has dark hair. Doesn't seem to talk much."

"Oh," Becky suddenly perks up. "Yeah, I know him. He's kinda, sorta friends with my brother."

" _Kinda, sorta_?" Jess repeats.

Becky's eyebrows knit together sadly. "I don't think he has many friends. Zack usually sits with him in the library. He says Sam's really nice, just not very social."

"His name's Sam?"

"Mmhmm," Becky says around a sip of water. "You know, Brady's his roommate and he said that Sam turned up on the first day with just one bag. No one helped him move in, he never gets calls or visitors, he even stayed on campus over holidays. I think he's all alone. Pretty sad, huh?"

Pretty sad, Jess thinks. She knows exactly where she's sitting for Art History tomorrow.

* * *

She catches him an hour before the lecture in a coffee shop. He's two places ahead of her in the line and asks for a vanilla latte just by pointing at it on the board above the barista's head. Hot paper cup in hand, he avoids her gaze as he heads outside.

Jess ditches her space at the front of the extremely long line. She has to jog to catch up to him, and her gentle touch on his shoulder shocks him enough that some of his coffee slops onto the pavement.

"Oh god, I'm sorry," Jess says hurriedly, pulling kleenex out of her purse to dab the liquid that caught his sweater. He jolts back a step until the two of them are a foot apart, just staring at each other. She slowly reaches out, offering the tissue like it's a white flag. Even more slowly, he takes it.

"I'm Jess," she introduces herself again. "I'm sorry if I freaked you out. I just. You usually sit alone in Art History and I figured you could use the company, but if you don't want me to sit there again, that's okay."

Sam pauses in dabbing his sweater and stares at her. Not spooked, Jess realises with relief. In fact, he looks almost touched.

"I..." he begins, but cuts himself off with a sigh, shaking his head.

"I'll just leave you alone," Jess says, trying to mask her disappointment with a small smile. "I'm really sorry if I bothered you."

She's about to turn away but Sam speaks.

"N-n-no. N-nnnot b-bother."

His gaze is pinned to the floor now, shoulders hunched, hand shaking a little and causing more coffee to dribble down the side of the cup. She can't deny she freezes for a second, shocked. It's not what she expected, and Sam seems to realise immediately, shoulders sagging lower. She quickly puts her hand on his arm, because a shock is all it was.

Frankly, she's just happy he spoke to her at all, especially when it seems to be so hard for him.

Jess smiles. "Well, thank goodness for that. I know I can be full-on sometimes, so I'm glad I'm not a total pain in the ass."

Sam dares to peek at her, head still pointed down. He's smiling a little.

"You know," Jess goes on. "I kinda made you lose half your coffee. Is it okay if I buy you another?"

"On-only ifff I buy you one t-t-too," Sam answers quietly.

Jess grins and lets go of his arm, holding out her hand instead. "Deal."

He takes her hand and she can feel it trembling between her fingers. She gives it a solid shake and Sam agrees, "D-deal."

She lets go and turns back towards the bustling coffee shop, Sam following half a step behind her. It's quiet between them, so she decides to fill the silence with more talking - her mom used to tell her she could talk for the United States - but Sam gets there first.

"Sam," he says, pointing to himself. Right, he hasn't actually introduced himself yet.

"Nice to meet you, Sam."

He blushes then, so much so that both his cheeks are completely red. She wonders, in their 2 years of college, if anyone's ever bothered to have a real conversation with him, let alone spend any time with him. She's changing that, right now.

"Hey, after the lecture, do you maybe want to have lunch with me and some friends?" she offers.

Sam gulps, immediately reverting to a deer caught in the headlights. Jess quickly backtracks, "You don't have to if you don't want."

"No," Sam says, clearer than he's been through their entire conversation. "I-I mean. Yuh. Yes please."

He isn't looking directly at her, focusing on his shoelaces instead, but she can see another smile peaking through his face. It's a start, Jess thinks, it's a start.

* * *

Thanks for reading! Hope you all had a merry Christmas/happy holidays, and I wish you all the best for the new year. This is probably the last story from me for 2017, so I'll see you in 2018 :)


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